Exploring Chatbots — They are Here to Stay
Written by Deepa Naik
Have you ever had a chat with a chatbot? If your answer is no, think again — if you visited a website and saw a pop-up message which says something similar to “How can I help you today?”, most probably this is not a human talking to you but a bot ( a bot is a software robot).
Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular today for businesses of all sizes — small and large. Businesses realize that there is nothing more frustrating to a customer than getting a message “Sorry our offices close at … hours. Please call us tomorrow”. Round the clock customer service has been an expectation over the last decade or more. The efficient and economical way to do this used to be outsourcing. However, that is getting optimized by the use of Chatbots. Most popular chatbots are messaging enabled apps for linear customer interactions using SMS/Mobile/Web technologies. Though customer service is the largest segment using chatbots, they are fast moving into other areas. The two new industries — healthcare and banking — are poised to become the next adopters of chatbots in a big way. As per Business Insider Intelligence Report, the combined user base of the top four chat apps is larger than the combined user base of the top four social networks.
What are Chatbots?
Chatbots are artificial intelligence software programs that interact with users through messaging apps. Communication in a chatbot is linear i.e. one on one with the user. A chatbot acts as a service, powered by rules that allow the user to interact. It is a concept of conversational commerce, a new way in which content and the customer experience converge. Here are two simple examples
Example 1 — SnapTravel has a set of rule-based questions which allow the chatbot to interact with the customer and make a sale.
Example 2 — Globe Telecom, a Philippines-based company uses the chatbot to access its technical support database and answer standard queries for the customers.
Figure 1: Chatbots in action
Examples of Chatbots
Chatbots are the mainstream in customer service. However, there are new areas which are still green field being explored but show a good potential for uses of chatbots. Some examples of Chatbots as lawyers, personal stylists, food ordering, doctors, financial advisors, teachers, and accountants are currently in use as shown in the figure below.
Figure 2: Chatbots in Use Today
Business Applications of Chatbots
A number of industries and corporate functions are putting chatbots to use in order to increase their sales and improve their efficiency
- Sales — Chatbots have been used for direct sale. For example, at 1800Flowers, you can browse and purchase your flowers using their chat feature without any interaction with a human or a website
- News — Quartz is an app that you don’t read the news with; you chat with it. Many news applications like Wall Street Journal and CNN rely on chatbots to help users customize their news viewing experience
- Travel — Expedia uses chatbots to actually help you book travel through conversation. Travel bots are increasingly getting smarter and can assist you to get prices, book flights and keep yourself updated on changing weather and other things that might affect your travel.
- HealthCare — Healthcare is one of the biggest growing chatbot markets in the world. You’re not going to get prescriptions or diagnosis from a chatbot, but they can be used for common questions or locating medical professionals. HealthTap is a popular healthcare bot in use.
- Banking — Chatbots in the banking industry are designed to handle everything from finding out your balance to transferring money and answering basic questions like branch hours and ATM locations. The biggest hurdle with this form of chatbot is ensuring security.
As per Juniper Research, Chatbots in healthcare and banking could potentially save these businesses upwards of $8 billion every year by the time we reach 2022. Today, in 2017, they’re already saving businesses more than $20 million, and they’re not even fully adopted yet.
Types of Chatbots
There are two kinds of chatbots: scripted bots and A.I. bots. A scripted chatbot is simple. Scripted chatbots do not tailor its responses to the user’s interests; it’s based on a flow of content created by human editors, not algorithms. A.I. bots, on the other hand, are built on NLP (Natural Language Processing), ML (Machine Learning) and Deep Learning. They are based on the capability of learning and absorbing information and are smarter as compared to scripted bots.
Chatbots / AI Bots vs. Virtual Assistants
Virtual Assistants like Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana and Google Now / Google Assistant are common. Though superficially they do appear as chatbots, i.e. you ask questions and they respond, virtual assistants are smarter than chatbots and are designed to perform tasks and not have mere conversations. They also possess the ability to learn users’ behavior and they need not be linear in their communication. Having said this, the lines can certainly blur between Chatbots, AI bots and Virtual Assistants.
Setting up a Chatbot for Your Business
Setting up a simple chatbot for your business may not be as difficult as it seems. There are platforms and tools which help developers as well as businesses set up Chatbots with very minimal effort. Facebook ‘Bots for Messenger’, Microsoft’s Blot Platform, Pandorabots, Kik, Telegram, Slack, and WeChat are providing ways and means to set up efficient chatbots.
Conclusion
Chatbots are quickly becoming one of the most versatile tools of the digital age. Powered by artificial intelligence, they are here to stay and effectively change the way users communicate with businesses and organizations. This vision — chatting to brands and businesses — is what’s driving the chatbot popularity and sooner or later everyone is going to have to join the bandwagon or be left out.
References:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-messaging-app-report-2015-11?IR=T
https://chatbotsmagazine.com/these-2-industries-are-the-next-big-things-for-chatbots-6b09e228800a
About the Author:
Deepa is a founding member of Humans For AI, a non-profit focused on building a more diverse workforce for the future leveraging AI technologies. Learn more about us and join us as we embark on this journey to make a difference!
